On the strength of this disc alone Gidon Kremer could be ranked amongst the elite of world violinists, and I am talking about performers such as Heifetz, Milstein, Ricci and Perlman. In matters of technique Kremer is entirely their equal. He plays Milstein's confection Paganiniana perhaps with a little less cosmopolitan grace than its originator, but he brings more soul to the pyrotechnics.
It was a nice idea to present a thematic programme. The disc both begins and ends with Paganini's Caprice No. 24 (the one used by Brahms and Rachmaninov, et al.) and not only does Paganini's music in some shape or form feature in all but one of the works, but Kremer has planned the recital so as to challenge the listener into thinking beyond the bravura into the broader scope of the ethos that surrounds Paganini's music.
The Ernst piece may be the odd one out, but in the ''Last Rose of Summer'' Etude he was aiming to extend the technical range of the violin beyond Paganini, and in doing so he created a work that defeats all but a handful of today's super-virtuosos. It is with absolute security that Kremer copes with such difficulties as playing the melody with a lef-hand pizzicato surrounded by simultaneous bowed arpeggios. Harmonics are true throughout, as is a uniformly pleasant tone (something that often goes by the board in Ricci's Paganini).
The Schnittke conjures up an obscure and other-worldly image of Paganini in punctuating the often dissonant virtuoso writing with snatches from the original works. This heightens the impression of a tormented individual who cannot reconcile the bravura elements with the dark side of his nature.
There are 51 variations in the work of the American composer George Rochberg (b. 1918) and Kremer plays 24 of these. They are in many different styles: nineteenth-century virtuoso, a foxtrot, jazz and atonal, with allusions to other compositions. Immensely taxing, the Caprice Variations come off as a tour de force; a compendium of different styles of violin writing. The DG engineers show Kremer's tone in the most sympathetic light. One of the most impressive violin records I have heard in recent years.'